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What's wrong with being open to different ideas?

Some ideas are bad, but how will we know which ones they are unless we listen to them and evaluate them?
And besides, why are different ideas automatically bad? And why are our current ideals automatically good?

What if I said I hated Christianity?

If a person wishes to stay in the dark and chooses not to expand the size of his pea brain, that is his own choice.
But it isn't an informed opinion. I can't and won't try to ban a person's personal thoughts.
Still, it is understandable to find faults with a religion.
It's stupid to hate a religion.

I could possibly understand if a religion is solely based on infanticide and torturing puppies.
But the truth is that all religions are trying to work towards what its people think is good.
Every religion is corrupted and twisted by people. And most religions encourage a dangerous cultish level of devotion and obedience.
But it is plain stupid to hate a religion. Especially one that you know nothing about. And I guarantee that anyone who claims to hate Islam doesn't understand it.

I think the issue with the Mosque in New York is the location. I feel like it is a bit of a slap in the face. Yes, the people who destroyed those buildings were Muslim. No, not all Muslims are terrorists. Since we are in this war America is going to be very "jumpy" with Muslims. But I can not speak for the entire American race. I do not mind seeing the women walk around in their respectful attire, but I have to say the turbans make me a little uneasy. Please do not yell at me. It is just because of what has happened and things my husband has told me. I can give an example. In Vietnam women would make themselves look pregnant and walk up to the American troops. Under their dress, their "baby belly", would be bombs. So we lost hundreds of men because of the women bombers. Some were even kids! Men could easily do this with their turbans. I know that the Muslims in our country wanted a better future, but thanks to the extremists in their home country they are now being... watched?

Sorry, I'm jumping back and forth trying to defend my reasoning, but I've had arguements with people before and I just want to clarify a little better. And now I know that the Al Queida are Muslims sweatdrop

But all sources are biased. You don't look for news without bias, you look for the truth under the bias and form your own conclusions. confused

I hate it because Muhammad twisted two other religions for money and power, and because they've made Jesus into one of their prophets, and also because there are verses that they use to mistreat women in the Middle East. I blame the Koran for having at least some part in the suffering there. If there were Jews who hated Christians because they think we stole from their religion, I wouldn't blame them, but at least you can't say Jesus didn't suffer for what He did. He died on a cross. Muhammad, so far as I can see, got tons of respect and riches, and not a lot of the pain. So to recap, I hate it:
1) For it's founder.
2) Because it disrespects the two religions I value most.
3) And for modern day suffering based off verses from it's holy book.
4) Oh, and it's a belief in their religion our Holy Book was distorted, which bugs me to no end. It sounds like a cop-out to me, and I don't see how any of them would know (and how would they know anything about Jesus anyway, if it developed a long time after His death?).

What I know:
Muhammad was the founder. Muslims have great reverence for him as the 'Last Prophet', though they don't consider him a god. Allah (which means 'god') is their only god, and they consider it a sin to have any others. They follow the Five Pillars, including a visit to Mecca and praying five times a day. Islam means 'submission'. In their paradise, the men have virgins, and the women are given children to care for. Muslims (at least from Saudi Arabia) don't really believe women have any sexual desires. Women aren't as valued as men, and they aren't considered mature enough to do certain things (like drive) in the Middle East. In some Middle Eastern countries, women are forced to don burqas or other less restrictive head coverings, though some Muslim women want to wear head coverings (one of my Muslim friends would wear a hijab if her mom would let her).
Muhammad claimed to have a revelation from Gabriel about being the 'Last Prophet'. Muslims believe that Allah revealed it because the Bible and Torah were distorted.
Muhammad is probably descended from Abraham's other son, Ishmael, who God said would become a great nation too.
In some ways, Islam is incredible similar to my religion, and I don't doubt that some Muslims treat their religion much the way Christians treat theirs. I debated with a Muslim, and felt like it was like looking in a distorted mirror. Some of his beliefs mirrored mine, with different names. That helps me not to feel any resentment towards Muslims, as well as the books I've read and knowing some Muslims. But I despise the religion, because it feels like a cheapo imitation of something I love, a plastic ring in place of gold. I resent the fact a lot of people have been lied to. Honestly, you'd have to force me to stop believing in Christianity to make me stop hating Islam, or at least give me some sort of proof that Muhammad's not a liar. At least if he was just a fool who had a vision, he didn't deceive a bunch of people on purpose (that's why I'm convinced that even if Jesus lied, He's not the villain Muhammad was. Who would lie for no profit? Why wouldn't He run from the soldiers if He didn't really believe what He was talking about? Who would knowingly die for a lie, especially if it seemed all was lost?).

And by the way, we don't have to test every idea to know if it's bad or good. I don't read horror because I don't need that in my head, and the only book which is slightly horrific I really regret reading (It had a scene which detailed a kid being conscious, yet paralyzed and unable to feel, while doctors took hours to strip him of his body parts. They start with the blood, then the feet, and go up from there...It's called Unwind, and now whenever I think of it, I get nauseous...)

america tends to embrace more intolerance than anything else. confused and that's sad, because that's unamerican.

We weren't all that tolerant from the beginning actually. I don't know about Muslims in American history, but we've done a lot of judging, especially based on race. I've even got some ancestors that were judged ('No Irish need apply'? I'm Irish), and I have completely European roots. African-Americans were thought of as animals at one point, and where do you think the laws against homosexuality came from? Not to mention what was thought of a girl who became pregnant. Some of them were forced to marry the guy, even the if he raped her. Even the founding fathers didn't think everyone was equal: woman didn't have equal rights, and black men were valued as 3/5 of a person. We celebrate diversity now, but once it was only the white men who had all the rights you're talking about. I'm not saying that was right, just that those rights were for one specific race and gender.

I don't think America embraces intolerance more than anything else, at least not when it comes to race, sexual orientation, or religion. I could name a few different things we embrace more, like capitalism. It might just be what part of the country the both of us live in. My state's really liberal, so anyone who judges is really likely to be more judged, especially if they judge based on religion, race or sexual preference. Anyways...I really don't think it's wrong to be intolerant towards an idea, as long as you aren't being intolerant towards the people under the idea.



I've actually got to say, I think people have gotten too open-minded. You can take anything too far, and that's the way I feel America is about accepting new ideas. 'Open-minded' is a compliment, 'close-minded' an insult. Well, when taken to extremes they're both bad things, but people need to have some non-negotiable convictions.